The live sting - 89%

When the band releases its best album, what it does? Goes on tour, naturally! When the Scorpions's hit album Love at First Sting is at stake, the tour goes big. The album is recorded in various places. The previous Scorpions Live album, Tokyo Tapes was released back in 1978. There are some differences between the two live albums besides the places where they were recorded.

Album consists of the material from the albums 1979-1984, from Lovedrive to Love at First Sting. Tokyo Tapes's material was from the first five albums. World Wide Live has no same song as Tokyo Tapes, which actually makes the comparison a bit more difficult.

The screaming of the crowd is stopped by the "Coming Home" which has been chosen for to be the first track. It's acoustic and silent intro has been taken off, which is not a bad thing. There's more guitar solos, and the song actually starts with one, I didn't even recognized this at first. "Blackout" is logical sequel to "Coming Home". There are no particular changes on this track. "Bad Boys Running Wild"'s crazy intro doesn't sound so fine when played live. "Loving you Sunday Morning" has also been hit by dropping the intro out. The power has somehow drawn out, and the guitar sounds a bit lazy. "Make it Real" suffers from the same problem, the simple guitar riff sounds like it has just got up. But there are more solos added.

"Big City Nights", recorded at Los Angeles (logically) is so happy as always. Vocalist Klaus Meine even cheers the audience up to sing with him and without. The result describes the intensity at their gigs. "Coast to Coast" reveals that Klaus Meine can play guitar too. He handles the rhythm guitar when Rudolf Schenker and Matthias Jabs are busy. That counts three guitars at the same time! "Holiday", that weepy ballad, is the next song. "Holiday" is made here acoustic only, and it actually works as a intro for "Still Loving You", the best ballad that Scorpions have made. It isn't better or worse than the album version. The sad guitar parts in the start have been remained untouched. The song actually is more raw than on the album. The end of the track is actually one of the few times when you can hear the audience going crazy under the bulldozing guitar attacks.

"Rock you like a Hurricane" is so crushing as ever, or even more. "Can't Live without You" has Meine cheering the audience up. The song really starts after it has been playing for a minute. The audience's reaction can't be heard too well, twin guitar attack prevents that. "Another Piece of Meat" has gone even better. It's louder and more crushing than on the album. Fast drumming kicks the crap out. Fast percussion attack continues with "Dynamite". It ends like it were a ending of the whole album. The band just gets slightly mad.

In the start of "The Zoo" someone is screaming, apparently Meine, who livens the audience up a bit again. "The Zoo" is a great song, there's no denying it. It's slow riff is good counter-balance for the happy songs earlier. The song features this odd voice, who is actually Jabs, and he makes this a good solo, thought it's not guitar. "The Zoo" doesn't even fade away, when the band starts the "No One Like You". A good half-ballad is good at this phase. It is a wonder, that Scorpions just don't end the album with ballad. Instead, it ends it all with "Can't Get Enough". The song is divided in two parts. The first part starts with drumming and ends suddenly with solo. All except the crowd are quiet when the interlude "Six String Sting" suddenly starts. It is a guitar solo part, which is pretty long. There are few aggressive, melodic and incredible solos here. During the solos, the audience gets crazy, but who wouldn't? Solos continue when the part two of the "Can't Get Enough" starts, and ends...

World Wide Live is a great live-album, but it also reveals some weaknesses. Some parts which sounded amazingly on albums have lost some of their magic live. Some limitations in Meine's vocals are also revealed. The album lacks few good songs which should have been here, "Is There Anybody There?" for instance. This can't be compared to Tokyo Tapes, because of the different material.